American’s flight attendants union put out a statement calling out Nicole Kidman because somehow restricting flights by Middle East airlines, which will make air travel more expensive (including for women trying to fly from the UAE, Pakistan, Bangladesh and elsewhere to the US) but will pad the bottom lines of US airlines is somehow good for women. The 25,000 members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants greatly admire and appreciate your efforts to advance women’s rights around the world as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Using your profile and stature for such a noble endeavor is commendable. However, we believe those efforts are at odds with your prominent role in an advertising campaign for Etihad Airways. The United Arab Emirates and their airlines are well-known in our industry for their discriminatory labor practices and…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for April 2015.
1000 Free Hilton HHonors Points
United, American, and Hilton all suffered recent data breaches. Indeed, Hilton points have been among the most available for sale on the DarkNet. Hilton accounts used 4-digit PIN numbers. That’s not a lot of unique combinations, and Hilton decided that’s not secure enough. In February Hilton reached out to let me know that they’re moving to passwords.. At the time they offered 1000 points to get you to update your password. But their IT wasn’t ready for their announced changes. On March 12 they said they were ready. Unfortunately it turned out that ‘ready’ meant ‘ready to get hacked’. You were supposed to change your password by March 25 in order to get 1000 points. Well, the whole thing was a bit of a mess so you still can get the 1000 point to change…
Delta Adds Award Blackout Dates to Its Terms and Conditions
Delta has updated its terms and conditions to add specific blackout dates for using SkyMiles to book awards on two of its partner airlines. What Are Blackout Dates? Let’s be clear about terms: Blackout dates are specific days where you cannot use your miles. Capacity controls are where there are a limited number of seats on any given flight that can be redeemed as an award. The capacity might be set to zero. So even where there are no formal dates with no awards permitted (blackout dates) there may still be dates where there are no awards available (capacity controls). Blackout dates are wholly unnecessary in a world with capacity controls. Delta Has Blackout Dates on Partners Not Included in the Program Terms Some programs like Korean Air’s Skypass have ‘high demand’ dates where awards…
Elite Status I Did Not Earn.. And Would Rather Not Have
I didn’t notice my account get its status upgraded, though it appears on Award Wallet (and now that I log in) as though it already has been. I received a direct mail piece from Marriott Rewards giving me Gold elite status: I was already a Marriott Rewards silver elite member, the lowest status I hold with any of the major chains. I’m currently: Hyatt Diamond. This was earned on both stays and nights. Starwood Platinum. This was earned based on 50 nights. Hilton HHonors Diamond. This was given as a targeted offer to American AAdvantage Executive Platinum members IHG Rewards Club Platinum. This is complimentary based on my non-renewing Intercontinental Ambassador status (which was itself complimentary based on my non-renewing Royal Ambassador status). Don’t get me wrong, Marriott Gold means lounge access or breakfast (but…
American AAdvantage Just Made One Shocking Change to Its Terms and Conditions
Apr
01
2015
The American AAdvantage program recently updated its terms and conditions. They added this sentence: To the full extent allowed by law, these Terms and Conditions disclaim any duty of good faith and fair dealing as well as any implied contractual terms or obligations. That’s pretty striking language — they have no “duty of good faith and fair dealing” — and my conclusion is that this means either nothing at all or at most only one thing: American doesn’t have very good lawyers.
Why You Shouldn’t Take Advantage of the 25% Bonus Transferring Amex Points to Virgin Atlantic
American Express is offering a 25% bonus on transfers of Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic through April 30. Before the end of the year American Express was offering a 35% bonus on transfers to Virgin Atlantic. So 25% doesn’t impress. Virgin Atlantic has one of the least valuable mileage currencies — my stretch for 8 good uses of the points shows how deep in the barrel I have to dig. The program adds fuel surcharges to awards. So while Virgin Atlantic itself has a decent business class product across the Pond, many prefer to book their awards through Delta SkyMiles (at a higher mileage cost) to avoid the fuel surcharges. If you’re looking to bulk up on Virgin’s miles, consider their Bank of America-issued credit card. American Express Membership Rewards points are too valuable,…
Review: Etihad Business Class, Abu Dhabi – Male (Maldives)
Apr
01
2015
Here I review Etihad’s lie flat business class seat for a regional flight from Abu Dhabi to Male (Maldives). Previous installments: Introduction, overview, and costs Star Alliance first class and business class lounges, LAX Etihad First Class, Los Angles – Abu Dhabi.. the 3rd Longest Flight in the World! Premier Inn, Abu Dhabi International Airport Etihad’s new business class lounge, Abu Dhabi About 35 minutes prior to departure time we headed down to our gate. Now, even though we were departing from terminal 3 (an upgrade from several past regional flights) it was still going to be a bus gate. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an airport where I have such a high proportion of bus gates — even departing long haul to destinations other than the U.S., and as I found out…
Have a Chase Ink Card? Here’s What You Need to Do Before You Lose an Important Benefit.
I returned to the country to a pileup of mail, including this from Chase: Someone has too many currently-open Ink cards. Chase is removing the ‘Lounge Club’ benefit from their Ink products. Lounge Club is the credit card version of Priority Pass, it’s a card that gets you lounge access though there are varying levels of membership. The basic free version just allows you to pay for entrance on each visit at participating lounges (American Express’ Hilton Surpass card gives you this.) The major difference between Priority Pass and Lounge Club is that the former includes several United Club lounges while the latter does not, so it’s a product that several credit cards can offer without violating Chase’s exclusivity (the initial branding was Priority Pass Select, which I first saw offered by American Express Platinum).…
How a Crew Filming the New James Bond Film Caused an International Air Incident
A James Bond film crew is in the news for their bad inflight behavior. Drunken film crew members involved in the latest James Bond movie triggered an international air alert by vomiting, urinating in the aisles and going on a drunken rampage during a flight to Mexico… The behaviour is said to have included smoking cigarettes in flight and removing a pin securing one of the cabin doors while close to American airspace. Apparently the crew in question were “[a]round 150 Spectre stunt men, camera crew and technical workers..on board the chartered Airbus A330 travelling from Stansted to Mexico City for the shooting of an ambitious opening scene based on the annual Day of the Dead festival.” SPECTRE of course is Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, the criminal syndicate and terrorist organisation…
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